The fresh smell of coffee and chatter of friends and acquaintances surrounded the four sixteen year old girls sitting at the table in the corner enjoying their afterschool meet up. Yoona was excitedly explaining her close encounter with a famous celebrity during one of her solo schedules to Taeyeon who merely smiled and nodded, taking extra care to listen to every word the girl was saying. Yuri was beside Taeyeon with her head rested against the table, tired from her lecture about keeping up with her school work from her science teacher and Sooyeon mirrored her actions from generally being tired overall.

“He walked up to me and was like ‘Keep up the good work, Yoona.’ He knew my name! He actually knew my name!” Yoona squealed in pure excitement. Taeyeon gave a breathy laugh and took a bite from her chocolate mud cake. Taeyeon then offered a piece to Sooyeon sitting opposite her to which the girl gratefully accepted. She needed to refuel her energy supplies and chocolate would do just that.

“Why don’t you get lectured by the teachers whenever you come back to school after a week or two? I got held back today, which then made me late to my next class and that teacher also gave me another lecture. The cycle just never ends,” Yuri complained. Yoona took a sip from her milkshake and hummed thoughtfully before smiling innocently.

“Because my grades don’t all start with a three and below,” she answered mockingly.

“Hey! I got forty-six for my last test,” Yuri defended. Yoona continued to drink from the draw and smiled with her eyes as she shoed nine fingers, followed by a three. “So what if you got ninety-three. That’s just you.” Yoona folded her arms and raised her brow at Yuri. Taeyeon could see Yuri’s defence crumbling drastically.

“The class average was eighty-two. You were the only one who failed. That test was the easiest that we’re ever going to get this year. The fact that you only scored forty-six for it is very concerning,” Yoona laughed. Yuri gave a defeated sigh and rested her forehead against the edge of the table, faking a sob. Taeyeon gave Yuri a sympathetic pat on the back. She knew it was hard for Yuri to juggle her work with her studies since she didn’t pick things up quickly like Yoona did. Sooyeon nudged her head towards Yuri, silently asking what was wrong with her.

“Her teacher wasn’t impressed with her grades again,” Taeyeon explained. Sooyeon looked over at Yuri again and shook her head unsympathetically.

“She should pay more attention when Yoona’s teaching her,” Sooyeon signed back sternly. Taeyeon bit her lower lip. Her friend did have a point. Yuri often gets distracted whenever Yoona’s trying to help her catch up with her studies. Sooyeon then looked behind Yuri and saw the door of the café opening. She grimaced in disgust when Jaebom walked in, looking for them. Taeyeon caught Sooyeon’s change in expression and looked behind her to see Jaebom smiling and waving at her.

“There you guys are. Man whatchu chicks doin’ hiding in the corner? You should be sitting at the front and flaunting your gift of beauty for everyone else, yo,” Jaebom beamed. Yoona shot the boy a glare and purposely moved her seat into the empty space to prevent him from joining. Sooyeon especially disliked Jaebom, or Jay as he likes to call himself, because of his obviously fake “gangster” style. The way he sways back and forth and waves his hand whilst his talking makes her wonder if he ever gets nauseous during the day.

“Jaebom Park, sit your down and shut up. I don’t want any of your annoying obnoxiously loud voice bothering me right now,” Yuri gritted. Truth be told, everyone except Taeyeon had forgotten that Jay was supposed to meet up with them as well, until he suddenly decided to finally rock up.

“Hey yo. It’s Jay. Jay Park. And what’s up with you today? Model chicks ain’t supposed frown. Causes, you know, those wrinkles and stuff,” Jay continued. Taeyeon gave a tight lipped smile and waved at Jay before getting him to sit down on the floor space next to her to avoid having attention drawn to them. Sooyeon was rather tempted to kick him from the other side of the table but then she would have Jaebom wanting to start a fight with her.

“Be glad that you only get to hang around us because Taeyeon allows you to. The moment she says the word, you would be out of here before you can even cry ‘mum’. And talk like a normal person before I stuff bread down your throat,” Yoona threatened. Jay turned his head away and scoffed, causing Yoona wanting to lunge over the table and strangle his throat.

“But she ain’t goin’ to say the word so keep dreaming, babe,” he retaliated. The whole table fell silent save for Sooyeon who was busy sneaking the rest of Taeyeon’s cake. Noticing that the movement around her stopped, she looked up and saw that the atmosphere had changed drastically. Taeyeon was now fidgeting in her seat, Yuri was already standing out of her seat and Yoona was glaring intensely at Jay. She then looked at Jay and he just showed about as much confusion as she did.

Piecing all the evidence together, she concluded that Jay had said something that was out of line and just quietly rolled her eyes. That boy just never learned when to stop.

“What?” Jay questioned innocently. Taeyeon tugged on Yuri’s hand to get her to sit back down. She didn’t mind if her friends pointed out her inability to speak but she would be lying if it didn’t affect her in any way. It still stung a little each time.

“Remind me again. Why do you even let this guy hang around us? I bet he still wets his bed all the time judging by his pants which look like they’re holding adult diapers,” Yuri scoffed. Sooyeon threw Jaebom a cold side glare when she caught his eye. He instinctively shut his mouth and shrunk further onto the floor. Growing up with the girl, he knew that she was not someone he should even try to stand up against. That girl hated him even more than cucumbers it seemed.

“He means no harm,” Taeyeon simply explained. She never really knew why she kept him around either but she didn’t hate his company that much. Irritating at times but generally barely tolerable. Just barely.

“He better keep his mouth shut. I can just imagine the pain you guys go through listening to that dweeb talk about himself all day,” Sooyeon pitched in. Yuri laughed and leaned against her chair to give a stretch. She wondered why she wasn’t more tolerable of the guy considering how the most annoying thing about him was the way he talks. But it seemed like Jaebom had a way of making his voice heard to those who can’t hear him in the first place. Terrifyingly annoying if that was the case.

“It’s like a super power,” Yoona muttered. Yuri raised her brow up at her best friend inquisitively. It was like she just voiced out her own thoughts. “His mouth. He could annoy the living soul out of anyone with that thing.”

Jaebom raised his head to argue back but when Sooyeon sensed the movement from the only male on their table she delivered a swift kick to his knee to get him to back down. Taeyeon shook her head and had to chuckle at the weird group of friends she had.

“Any ways, want to go to my place to catch up on study? Seems like you’ll need it,” Yoona offered Yuri. Being reminded of her failing grades, she pressed her head against the table with a heavy sigh again. Words and numbers on paper never made sense to her. Give her pictures though and she would gladly study it for hours. That was probably why she never really got around to doing her homework at home because Taeyeon and Sooyeon’s paintings always occupy her time at home.

Yoona laughed as Yuri banged her head against the table multiple times miserably. Whilst looking at the dreary girl, she noticed on the side of her view that Jaebom was subtly moving closer towards Taeyeon. She was about to stop him from getting and closer when Sooyeon suddenly stood up. She pointed towards Jaebom and then to the chair that she was sitting on, not forgetting to add an especially icy glare which left no room for Jaebom to argue back.

He obediently stood up from the floor next to Taeyeon and dragged his feet to Sooyeon’s seat with his head bowed low to avoid making eye contact with the girl who was obviously much more powerful than him. Yuri gave a soft giggle and raised her hand up to Yoona who returned the gesture with a hi-five. Sooyeon then moved to Jaebom’s place and was about to sit down but Taeyeon stopped her before she could even so much as awkwardly bend down. The older girl then pushed her chair out from the table and smiled reassuringly whilst patting her thighs.

“Why does she get t-”

Jaebom wasn’t even able to finish his complaint when two different feet slammed their heel into each of his feet. Sooyeon threw him a smug smirk and gladly sat down on her friend’s lap. She also took advantage of the situation to steal Taeyeon’s fork and dig into the rest of her cake, not that Taeyeon minded either way.

Taeyeon and Sooyeon hopped off the bus with their hands carrying bags of groceries for the week. They waved at the bus driver who had become familiar with them after driving them for almost two years. Taeyeon quickly hopped back on and reached into her pocket to pull out a few fruit lollies and passed them to the driver. He thanked her with a laugh and jokingly shooed her off the bus to keep on time with everyone else’s schedule. Taeyeon quickly hopped beside Sooyeon again as they both waved at the departing bus.

Sooyeon and Taeyeon’s eyes met and they both instinctively smiled at each other. The younger of the two then nodded her head down the street towards her home and off they both went with their hands swinging back and forth with plastic bags rustling against each other. Only a few moments later, they finally reached their destination and were surprised to see a woman standing at the front door.

“Oh.” The woman turned around at the sound of the plastic bags. “Hello there, Taeyeon. Did Sooyeon force you to help her out with her chores again?”

Taeyeon shook her head and smiled when she recognised the woman to be Jiyeon, the now current owner of her old childcare centre. She then waited as Sooyeon expertly climbed the front gate with both plastic bags still in her hand before passing the rest of the bags over and cautiously climbed over after her. Sooyeon stood on the other side, making sure she wasn’t in danger of falling. Jiyeon rolled her eyes at the two and continued to open the front door. When she turned around again Sooyeon was standing right behind her.

“Did you forget the keys again?” she asked. Sooyeon nodded her head with a grin and walked straight past the childcare worker with Taeyeon being dragged along. Jiyeon gave a soft chortle and continued in, making sure to close the door behind her. She was just glad she got home in time before Sooyeon forced Taeyeon to climb through the window like she described last time they forget the key. Jiyeon took off her coat and hanged it on the coat hangers to her left before taking off her shoes to place them next to the two haphazardly thrown pair. When she walked in, she saw the two packing away the groceries swiftly. She knew Sooyeon must have dragged Taeyeon to he